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10. Consistent with the law and the Constitution, the jury may convict the defendant of
The jurisdiction has a death penalty that applies to felony murder.
A defendant was charged with felony murder because of his involvement in a bank robbery. The evidence at trial disclosed that a friend invited the defendant to go for a ride in his new car, and after a while asked the defendant to drive. As the friend and the defendant drove around town, the friend explained to the defendant that he planned to rob the bank and that he needed the defendant to drive the getaway car. The defendant agreed to drive to the bank and to wait outside while the friend went in to rob it. As they approached the bank, the defendant began to regret his agreement to help with the robbery. Once there, the friend got out of the car. As the friend went out of sight inside the bank, the defendant drove away and went home. Inside the bank, the friend killed a bank guard who tried to prevent him from leaving with the money. The friend ran outside and, finding that his car and the defendant were gone, ran down an alley. He was apprehended a few blocks away. The defendant later turned himself in after hearing on the radio that the friend had killed the guard.
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The Eighth Amendment prohibits the imposition of a penalty that is grossly disproportionate to the seriousness of the offense committed. The death penalty may not be imposed as a punishment for felony murder upon an accomplice who «did not take or attempt or intend to take life, or intend that lethal force be employed.» Enmund v. Florida, 458 U.S. 782 (1982). However, an accomplice to felony murder may be given the death penalty, even if he did not kill or intend to kill, if he participated in a major way in the underlying felony that resulted in murder and acted with reckless indifference to the value of human life. Tison v. Arizona, 481 U.S. 137 (1987).
B is correct. The defendant's aiding and abetting the friend by agreeing to drive the getaway car, driving the friend to the bank, and knowing that the friend intended to rob it, makes him guilty of the felony murder charge. However, the defendant's lack of intent to kill, his driving off after dropping the friend off, and his turning himself in after the fact, indicate that a sentence of death would be disproportionate and therefore unconstitutional.
A is incorrect. Although the defendant could be properly convicted of felony murder based on his knowing involvement in aiding and abetting the commission of the felony bank robbery, pursuant to the Eighth Amendment, the death penalty may not be imposed for felony murder unless the defendant's involvement was major and he acted with reckless indifference to the value of human life. Here, the defendant's decision to drive the getaway car and then leave, combined with his lack of intent to kill, establish that the defendant did not act with reckless indifference to the value of human life.
C is incorrect. The defendant may be convicted of the felony murder charge, not solely robbery. The defendant could reasonably foresee that a death could have resulted in the course of his friend robbing a bank.
D is incorrect. The defendant acted as a co-conspirator to his friend's plan to rob the bank. His decision to drive the getaway car and drop his friend off at the scene of the crime (despite leaving before the crime was committed) amount to grounds to convict the defendant of not only robbery, but also of felony murder because death was a reasonably foreseeable result.